Zero-balance gift cards as giveaways

[jgc14571]

Hi all, 

Is it possible to do something I've seen Amazon do, using Square? This is the scenario.

I used to be able to get free gift cards from Amazon that had a unique redemption code printed on them, but the cards had no value at that point in time.

To give the card as a gift, first you would go to the Amazon website, choose an amount of money, type in the code from the gift card, pay, and that amount of money would be loaded on to the gift card.

You then gave the gift card to the recipient like a normal gift card, and they used the redemption code to buy whatever they wanted from Amazon.

It's a bit like the plastic cards you see in supermarkets which have no value until they're loaded at the till. But I don't want to buy the plastic Square cards, because they are intended to be given away en masse and also I don't want to have to load the 'credit' on to them using a Square Terminal or Register.

I'd like to be able to generate (say) 500 unique voucher codes, print those on cheap, business-card style cards for people to pick up freely and then add 'credit' to via the Square website if they choose to. If they change their mind afterwards and bin the card, it hasn't cost me anything except a few pence for the production of the card.

Is this possible?

[Breffni]

Hi @jgc14571 👋 thank you for your detailed request!

I can see how a feature like this would be really useful, especially when you want to offer incentives like giveaways. As of now, this specific functionality isn’t available in Square, as physical gift cards need to be ordered, sold, and loaded with credit before they can be used.

However, this is a popular request, and we understand how it would be beneficial for many Square Sellers. If there are any future updates, I'll let you know here! 

[jgc14571]

Hi Breffni,

Thanks for the reply -- rather than do this with Square's plastic gift cards though, is there a way of producing a batch of e-gift card codes, even with say a £0.01 balance on each code, that I could use to produce my own cards? Then customers could top up the code via the Square website, is that possible? 

Sorry if I'm asking the same question twice, I'm just trying to make sure I properly understand!

Thanks again!

[Sam_400º]

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@jgc14571 wrote:

producing a batch of e-gift card codes, even with say a £0.01 balance on each code, that I could use to produce my own cards?

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You can batch produce e-gift cards, but the min value for them is set to £1. 

If you get the plastic ones then they come with no value on so can be given out and topped up by the receiver. 

If you're not using the plastic cards then aren't you complicating things? As essentially you're printing a flyer for gift cards, but instead of being able to produce a load of generic ones you're having to make each one unique because of the code. 

[jgc14571]

Hi Sam,

Thanks very much for this -- it does sound more complicated to do what I'm proposing doesn't it! But I'm a printer by trade, so I could produce say 500 flyers with unique codes on for not very much money, whereas buying 500 of the plastic cards at the cheapest rate would be £436, before we've printed the accompanying cards, envelopes etc. that will have to go with them. 

I think I'll have to go back to my customer and suggest we have to go down the plastic card route if she wants to use Square. If she decides that's the way to go, and forgive me if I'm being a bit stupid here, but the plastic cards have no expiry date on them do they?

Thanks again Sam, your advice is very much appreciated 🙂